GOP county chairs beginning to relax on their pressure to restrict political speech

Over the past couple weeks, stories of GOP county chairs putting pressure on their committees to support Dan Maes over former Congressman Tom Tancredo in the governor's race began to surface. Most notably was that of a Weld County GOP email restricting its central committee members' political speech specifically in regards to this race. The email went as far as ordering committee members not to show support for a non-Republican candidate on Facebook or Twitter.

It now appears that pressure is beginning to subside. Although concerns were raised in Adams County over the recent fundraiser co-hosted by Tancredo for Republican HD 32 candidate Kaarl Hoopes, the event turned out well. Hoopes curtailed the criticism by explaining in an email to the Adams County GOP leadership that “Tom was the first well known leader of several I reached out to who agreed to host a by fundraiser for my campaign when he was a Republican and endorsing a Republican candidate for governor. Tom has been a great supporter and a good friend as has his running mate Pat Miller...His was also the first major endorsement I was privileged to receive. It was a difficult choice to make but we decided to go forward with this fundraiser.” He continued by stating that “I greatly appreciate Tom's willingness to step up and help me win. Tom even said a truly kind and thoughtful thing: that if I wished for him to step aside from this event he would understand. That kind of graciousness made me all the more appreciative of his friendship and willingness to help!”

Hoopes also notified Maes of the decision to continue with the fundraiser. He wrote, “Yesterday I called Dan to give him a heads up on this event. He said he appreciated me explaining the background on the fundraising reception. Dan said that ‘whether I was changing to support Tom or not it wouldn't effect our friendship.’ I told him I am not taking a position on the race at this time due to my friendships with both of them. I appreciated his kind words very much! I look forward to working with Dan in a like manner to Tom in the future.”

In addition, an Adams County Republican precinct committee person, who wishes to remain anonymous, was told by her district captain she would not be asked to step down, even though she has publicly shown her support for Tancredo. He told her there were other Tancredo supporters holding county GOP seats and it would create vacancies if they were removed. According to this precinct committee person, the county central committee must vote on whether or not to remove an individual holding an elected position. She favored this open-minded stance and stated, “It makes me want to go walk precincts and become more engaged with the GOP.”

Kathleen Baker has a BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado and more than ten years experience in the communications and publishing industries. She is highly involved in the Tea Party movement, serving as the assistant organizer of the Evergreen/Conifer Tea Party and as a member of the state leadership team of Colorado 912s and Tea Parties. She may be contacted at kathleenbaker@wispertel.net.